If Blogger's bugging you change? Or is it just a hiccup? Insta is running his own gig ain't he? and I think that PJ has a prefab that you can use and modify as you please.

You have the support and resources to roll solo, you don't need the supervision of blogger too badly, specially since you undoubtedly have some students begging for grades who can handle this all the way down to the fundamentals ne?

Just a thought. You got the traffic to stand exclusive of blogger. Just a thought.

The reason I don't change is that the thing changed to can just as well have problems. It's not about paying or not paying for the service. I do not trust the alternatives. At least Google is a big operation that will have to succeed.

I knew all along that it wasn't just me. I used the Blogger Help Group which was much better at getting info out than the status page.

As far as using students to help me with my blog -- I have tech people at the Law School who are excellent. But the problem is that my blog isn't all law, and I have ads, so I need to keep some separation between the blog and the Law School, even though part of this blog is regarded as part of my job. Anyway, the law school licenses Movable Type and provides for blogging on the Law School website, but I don't want to be there.

You point out the Glenn Reynolds has his own site, but why is his wife using Blogger?

All good reasons, thats why I deliberately multiplied my supplication by stating "just a thought" more than once.

However, can't you create a small stipend for your students who assist you with your blog, as long as you make sure that they take part in legal portions of the blog? Like freelance writers, you simply pay them by each line authored, or edited or researched by students or whatever, based on the legal aspect of your blog, and allowing for additional technical support as a portion of their responsibilities?

I don't think a student on the planet would have a problem with being a minimum wage worker, working less than 1/4 time in the hopes of maybe being trusted with a one time by line on your blog when they get a chance to not only have an opinion but a voice, and not just a voice, but a voice sanctioned by Anne Althouse?

Cripes!!! You are a LAW professor, and one thing I learned about the law (and why I avoid it at all costs) is that one rule/law, is always in conflict with another law.

ESPECIALLY since you are such a significant presence on the net, you might be allowed to shanghai a student or two from the CS CIS EE EET or basicaly any engineering major, and god knows how many science colleges to assist you.

You don't have the weight of insta, and you shouldn't, you look fine as you are, but what weight you have on the net, is significant enough that an honorable mention on your blog would affect every law/electric/electronic/engineering/science kid looking for an addition to their resume'.

If your Uni would have a problem with using resources within the uni, in accordance of their education and in application of your blog, then your uni forgets about that whole network, and resume' thing.

If your blog is proffit, then you can route money to the kids, but even if you don't go through the uni, you can say "get to be in the presence of Anne Althouse while helping to improve Anne Althouse Blog!" in a university paper, and you would be swimming in just the right people.

I moved off Blogger earlier this month, partly because of outages and partly because I am able to do more with a Wordpress blog than I ever could with Blogger, and everything else is alot easier.

I look at it this way. Its great that Blogger is free, but in some sense you get what you pay for. What incentive does Google really have to provide reliable service to people who aren't paying them anything and who don't generate any revenue for them ? Very little I would think.

I got my own domain and got a great hositng deal from LRE Hosting and I haven't had anything to complain about.

I don't buy the excuse "you get what you pay for" for Google. Google makes money. It has a business model, and offering things free is part of it. Using the free service enhances their business, so in that sense we users are paying. They owe us proper service. Don't make me say this again!

Tell me about it! I get up early to post on the previous days red sox blue jays game, I post early the next morning before I start work at 5:45 a.m. Nothing, nothing, nothing, just ruined my whole day knowing that I had a post out there sitting in limbo. grrrr

I understand that Google has a business model that includes giving away free stuff, but I've never quite understood where Blogger fits into that......they don't make users run Google ads on their blogs, for example, so I've never quite understood how it figures into their plan.

I agree they owe customers something, but the question is what ? The Blogger user interface, for example, doesn't have half the features you can find on Wordpress or Moveable Type, and there doesn't seem to me to be any reason for them to upgrade it at this point.

It was the u/i, and the features and add-ons you can add to Wordpress that were my main reason for leaving. Publishing in Wordpress is much easier, IMO.

I understand that Google has a business model that includes giving away free stuff, but I've never quite understood where Blogger fits into that......they don't make users run Google ads on their blogs, for example, so I've never quite understood how it figures into their plan.

Blogads are optional, but this helps to draw people into using Blogger. Once a person creates any sort of traffic presence for himself, he's more inclined to leverage that presence for income by incorporating Blogads. Thus, Google makes a lot of money off of the pay-per-click advertising by simply providing content distribution and without having to create content by itself. I admire this model. Very efficient, I think.

Yes. Basicaly, the original model for Google makes it more than proffitable. Basicaly, they are expanding based on the fact that they can, and also, that owning everything of nothing will eventuall become something.

Kinda like the the common business model for newspapers in the 70's and 80's. You just pay for the paper, the publisher gets payed by the advertiser.

Only google owns virtually EVERYTHING. EMC3 (stupid manipulation) but EMC was along those lines, but they cashed in too early.

Nice of Quxxo to show up and say something that's both short and funny.

Wickedpinto: Would it kill you to spell my name right?

Doug: I've used Movable Type (guest-blogging on Instapundit) and I didn't notice much difference. And Google will work on its product, offering new features. They have so much invested here. I'm betting on them. Freeman Hunt is exactly right about how they make money, even though AdSense is voluntary. I'm not using AdSense, but I'm still helping Blogger get more people and many of them will use AdSense (and make almost nothing from it, while Google pockets everything). I am SO not letting them off the hook.

I think there is a lot to be said for keeping it simple. Note the "Minima" template. I'd like something custom made, but not more complicated, and I don't care enough to have hired someone yet to do a custom design (or to teach myself how to do it on my own). I'm concerned with the writing and the photos or drawings within the posts. The shell is just something that should be unobtrusive and reliable.

Maxine: It's a state university. There are complications when it comes to talking about politics, especially particular candidates. I don't want that inhibition in the picture. You know, the university computers go down sometimes too!

But anyway, the school does give me recognition for the blogging. I do not feel unsupported. Not at all. There's interest in starting a law school faculty blog, and I'd be involved in that, though I have reservations about whether it will work/be good.

Oddly enough, I get gratuitous ads on my photographs on Flickr, which is google, right? A seaside picture got some fish oil pitch, and there are other rather humorously odd associations that seem to be sparked by my witty captions.